Disclosure of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance Information by Spanish Companies: A Compliance Analysis

Abstract

The transposition of Directive 2014/95/EU to Spain through Law 11/2018 of December 28 requires companies to publish information on the impact of their environmental, social, and governance activities (ESG information) in management reports or in a “non-financial statement.” This study aims to assess the readiness of IBEX35 companies to submit ESG reports through their communication and web transparency and to determine whether such ESG information is related to these companies’ financial indicators. The study is pioneering in the analysis of the transparency of non-financial information on the websites of companies listed on the main Spanish stock market index (IBEX 35). It uses exploratory and descriptive analysis to determine whether the companies with the best economic efficiency indicators are also the most transparent in non-financial indicators (ESG) and to what extent these relationships explain the dependency between the two. The findings reveal that IBEX35 companies need to improve their web transparency by presenting solid non-financial reports with ESG sustainability parameters. The results show that companies with economic profitability in Return on Assets that use their debt levels wisely disclose higher levels of ESG information. In other words, financial performance and indebtedness contribute to improving levels of ESG disclosure on the IBEX35. Companies must also improve accessibility to ESG information, update it, and classify it in accordance with current regulations.